Midwest tornadoes: 'The sky was just rumbling'

By Ted Rowlands. Holly Yan and Michael Pearson, CNN

Updated 9:56 PM ET, Mon November 18, 2013

Photos: Severe weather slams Midwest38 photos

Severe weather slams Midwest – Washington, Illinois, sits in ruins on Monday, November 18, the day after a severe tornado ripped through the community. A fast-moving storm system that produced several tornadoes left behind a path of destruction across the Midwest.

Severe weather slams Midwest – Stacy Broniak and neighborhood firefighter Todd Woolf look for medication and oxygen supplies at the home Stacy's grandmother in Kokomo, Indiana, on Sunday, November 17.

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Severe weather slams Midwest – An overturned car rests in a pile of rubble about a mile northeast of Washington, Illinois, on November 17. Washington is in central Illinois, east of Peoria.

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Severe weather slams Midwest – Maranda Souders picks up a crystal bowl and cup while searching through debris from her grandmother's home in Brookport, Illinois, after a tornado hit the small town in far southern part of the state on November 17.

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Severe weather slams Midwest – A stuffed animal lies in the road in Brookport, Illinois, on November 17.

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Severe weather slams Midwest – Firefighters survey the damage at Mintonye Elementary School in Lafayette, Indiana, on November 17. A series of strong thunderstorms pounded Tippecanoe County, northwest of Indianapolis, on Sunday.

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Severe weather slams Midwest – The south wall was ripped off the gymnasium at Southwestern Middle School in Lafayette, Indiana, on November 17.

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Severe weather slams Midwest – The roof was torn off this classroom at Southwestern Middle School in Lafayette, Indiana, on November 17.

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Severe weather slams Midwest – A firefighter works to clear a tree from a street in Brookport, Illinois, on November 17.

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Severe weather slams Midwest – An elderly woman is escorted through tornado debris in Brookport, Illinois, on November 17.

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Severe weather slams Midwest – Dave Huffman sorts through his belongings in the living room of his destroyed home in Kokomo, Indiana, on November 17. Kokomo is almost 60 miles north of Indianapolis, the state capital.

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Severe weather slams Midwest – The roof of a building sits in the middle of the road in Kokomo, Indiana, on November 17.

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Severe weather slams Midwest – A car sits among the debris of a leveled home in Kokomo, Indiana, on November 17.

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Severe weather slams Midwest – Ray Baughman embraces family shortly after his home was destroyed by a tornado south of Peoria in Pekin, Illinois, on November 17.

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Severe weather slams Midwest – A firefighter, in lower center of photo, peers down into the home of a colleague whose home was destroyed when a tornado swept through Washington, Illinois, on November 17.

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Severe weather slams Midwest – Firefighters look over damage to trailers at Summit Village, east of Marion, Indiana, after storms blew through Marion and Grant County, northeast of Indianapolis, on November 17.

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Severe weather slams Midwest – The Irvington Post Office is badly damaged after heavy rain and high winds hit Indianapolis on November 17.

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Severe weather slams Midwest – Volunteers try to reposition the HVAC unit on top of Heritage Primary Elementary School in Wentzville, Missouri, on November 17. Board members, staff and teachers came to the school to help with the cleanup after a storm tore off parts of the roof. Wentzville is about 40 miles west of St. Louis.

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Severe weather slams Midwest – Richard Miller salvages items from his brother's home in Washington, Illinois, on November 17.

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Severe weather slams Midwest – Corn husks fly through the air as Eric Crawford checks his mail after the storm passed in rural Orchard Farm, Missouri, on November 17.

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Severe weather slams Midwest – Firefighters stretch caution tape around the New Life Tabernacle Church in Paducah, Kentucky, on November 17.

Severe weather slams Midwest – Water shoots from broken pipes after part of a wall and roof collapsed on November 17 at the Dollar General distribution center east of Marion, Indiana.

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Severe weather slams Midwest – Tornado victims sift through an overturned mobile home in Brookport, Illinois, on November 17. A tornado ripped through the small town in southern Illinois.

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Severe weather slams Midwest – A home is damaged by a tree that was uprooted during the storm in Pekin on November 17. Pekin is part of the cluster of towns in central Illinois hit hard by the severe weather.

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Severe weather slams Midwest – Chuck Phillips looks out at the destruction that tore off part of his roof and destroyed homes in his neighborhood on November 17 in Pekin.

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Severe weather slams Midwest – A police officer talks with a resident in Pekin after a tornado touched down in the area on November 17.

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Severe weather slams Midwest – An apartment manager warns Illinois State University students to stay back from a roof that blew off "The U" student apartments in Normal, Illinois, on November 17.

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Severe weather slams Midwest – Firefighters stand in the middle of the street after a tornado leveled at homes in Washington, Illinois, on November 17.

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Severe weather slams Midwest – People survey storm damage on November 17 in Hustisford, Wisconsin, which is northwest of Milwaukee.

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Severe weather slams Midwest – Billy Vestal evacuates his home in East Peoria, Illinois, with his 3-year-old daughter, Lillian Vestal, after a tornado damaged the area on November 17.

Severe weather slams Midwest – A damaged cattle shed sits on a family farm in Hustisford, Wisconsin, on November 17. Dodge County Emergency Management Director Joseph Meagher says no cattle were injured.

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Severe weather slams Midwest – Josh Ramsey recovers items from the house of a family friend after a tornado tore through the north end of Pekin, Illinois, on November 17.

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Severe weather slams Midwest – Members of Soldier Field's ground crew prepare the field to resume play after a severe storm blew through the area on November 17 and suspended play during the first half of the game between the Chicago Bears and Baltimore Ravens.

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Severe weather slams Midwest – Fans begin to clear the stands during the rain and high winds at Soldier Field in Chicago on November 17.

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Severe weather slams Midwest – Baltimore Ravens players leave the field after the game was delayed on November 17.

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Story highlights

Officials say a 21-year-old man was killed in Michigan, bringing the death toll to 8

Washington, Illinois, storm rated as EF-4, with winds of up to 190mph

Illinois governor makes disaster declaration for seven counties

"A lot of people have a pile of rubble still, and I don't have anything," survivor says

Steve Bucher knew something was ominous about the weather.

"The sky was just rumbling for 20 minutes," Bucher said on CNN's "New Day," on Monday, the day after a devastating tornado outbreak destroyed his Washington, Illinois, home and dozens of others in several Midwestern states. "I told my wife I've just never heard anything like this in my life."

Soon, she was begging him to go downstairs into their basement.

"Within 30 seconds, the house was literally vibrating from the direct hit of this funnel cloud," Bucher said.

"Next thing we know, things are cracking, and glass breaking and furniture came around the corner, missed us even though it came down the hallway where we were," he said.

"I think my attitude was in the next minute and a half, we're either going to be in heaven, we're going to be in the hospital or we're going to walk out of here. Completely in the Lord's hands which one of those three things was going to happen," he said.

The storm that destroyed Bucher's home was part of a multi-state outbreak of tornadoes and powerful winds Sunday that caused damage in several states, including Missouri, Indiana, Michigan and Wisconsin.

Six people died in Illinois and two men were killed in Michigan, according to authorities. As many as 200 people were injured through Illinois, officials said. Some 120 of those injuries came in Washington, said Jon Monken, director of the Illinois Emergency Management Agency. Seven of those injuries were "traumatic," Monken said.

The storm destroyed or seriously damaged as many as 400 homes in Washington alone, Gov. Pat Quinn told reporters Monday.

Damage was also reported in the adjacent northern Illinois towns of Diamond and Coal City, in Champaign County in central Illinois, in southern Illinois' Washington County and in Massac County -- in the extreme southern tip of the state.

Quinn declared seven counties a state disaster area, including Tazewell County, just east of Peoria in central Illinois, where a tornado left parts of Washington in ruins and one person dead.

"Devastation. Sadness. People that lost everything," is how Washington Mayor Gary Manier described the scene to CNN's Chris Cuomo on "New Day."

Another tornado in Washington County, Illinois, east of St. Louis, left a path of debris that stretched more than three miles, according to a preliminary survey by the National Weather Service.

While the bulk of the storm system had moved offshore into the Atlantic Ocean and the threat of severe weather Monday was small, damaging wind gusts of up to 40 mph were still possible in parts of the Northeast, CNN meteorologist Indra Petersons said Monday morning. In the Great Lakes region, 50 mph gusts were possible, she said.

The storm struck the town of Washington around 11 a.m. Sunday, when many of its 10,000 residents were at church.

That's where Curt Zehr was when cell phones started chirping out storm alerts and the congregation headed to the basement. His wife and son, Mike, were at home. Zehr's wife texted to say they'd seen the tornado hit Washington, about a mile to the south.

"Then, about five minutes later, she texted me and said the house is gone," Zehr told CNN. "I said, 'Whose house?' " She said, 'Our house.' "

Mike Zehr said it wasn't long after they saw the storm hit Washington that they realized it was headed straight for them.

They took to the basement and within a few minutes, Mike Zehr said, the house exploded with the loudest sound he's ever heard.

"The next thing we know, it's completely quiet and the sun's just shining through the stairs in the basement," he said.

And their house was gone.

Dozens of others had similar experiences.

"It was complete destruction," resident CNN iReporter Anthony Khoury, who filmed the tornado tearing through his neighborhood, said Sunday. "There are people in the streets crying."

Resident Michelle Crumrine said the winds swept her home and everything in it clean away.

"A lot of people have a pile of rubble still, and I don't have anything," she said. "It's gone. I don't know where it went."

On Monday, a National Weather Service survey team confirmed the storm had winds of 170 mph to 190 mph, producing EF-4 damage, the agency said. Earlier, the weather service had said such a confirmation would make the tornado the most powerful November twister in the state since at least 1950.

In Washington County, the county coroner's office identified two dead there as 80-year-old Joseph Hoy and his 78-year-old sister, Frances. They died when a tornado obliterated their family farm in New Minden, the office said.

A 51-year-old man was killed in the town of Washington. Steve Neubauer was found near his home, Tazewell County officials said.

Three other deaths happened in Massac County, across the Ohio River from Paducah, Kentucky. Authorities identified the storm victims as Kathy George, 58, Robert Harmon, 56, and Scholitta Burrus, 63.

In Perry, Michigan, a 59-year-old man was found dead, tangled in live power lines. Phillip Smith's wife reported him missing after he didn't return after going out after the storm passed. Officials said a 21-year-old man was killed Sunday in Jackson County, but didn't release his name.

Brutal winds also flipped over at least six trucks on highways about 80 miles west of Chicago, the Ogle County Sheriff's Office said.

Officials in Missouri and Indiana were also dealing with storm damage.

In Missouri, state emergency officials said a tornado may have hit Scott County, where heavy winds overturned three rail cars and blew over four mobile homes.

"The rain started coming, the skies got black, the wind was insane, and they evacuated us to underneath the concrete concourse," said Jim Arnold, who was at the game with his 11-year-old daughter.

"We've been through 15-degree-below weather and winds, but never anything like this," Arnold said. "The winds gusted at 70 mph, and the winds and the rain were horizontal and everybody was running. It was just crazy."

After the storm passed, fans returned to their seats and the game resumed

Thousands of travelers scheduled to fly through Chicago's O'Hare International Airport also had to grapple with the storm. More than 270 flights were canceled Sunday, and delays overnight stretched for an hour or more.

Unusual outbreak

Sunday's storms accounted for more than half of the tornado warnings issued in Illinois since 1986, the National Weather Service said Monday.

CNN meteorologist Karen Maginnis said the storms came later in the year than some might have expected.

"The primary time for tornadoes, as we well know, is springtime. Then we see a second high that comes in the fall," she said. "Is this late? It is rather late, because the temperatures have been very warm."

"On the backside of that, temperatures are dramatically cooler. So that cold air is filtering in behind it, warm air out ahead of it," she said. "And ... we get some twisting motion in the atmosphere. And that's why we see this tornadic activity."

Getting the latest warnings when tornadoes are headed your way and knowing what to do before, during and after one hits are all key to staying safe. A handful of apps can help you stay on top of impending dangerous weather.